Recipe for bees....

 Take 60 prepped beach rocks painted gold and yellow...

 ...at least 120 eyes...

 ...for sure, 120 wings made from plastic netting...

 ...commence with the first kids garden club of the year...

 ...add many busy hands, black markers...

 ...creative minds...

 ...lots of enthusiasm!...

 And presto!!!  Bees!!

 All shapes...

 ...all sizes...

 ...curious ones...

 ...smiley ones for sure!...

 ...ready for buzzing...

 ...pollen collecting...

 ...honey making bees. All made with love!

Way to go kids!!

Little signs...

Oh, it's on it's way.

Spring!

The birds have begun singing in earnest in the mornings which are getting lighter, earlier.
As usual the robin's are the first ones up, bleeping in the day.

The tiny grape hyacinth is coming up...

 I put some in this little, old shoe polish bottle I found on the beach last fall...

 ...it has a bit of a purple tinge from the old glass it's made of which does that as it ages.

My friend Liz who knows antiques told me that you can tell glass is old like this because

of something (I forget now what...mercury maybe?)

 they use to put in glass that they don't anymore, maybe pre -1910.

Yes, that's a bit of sunlight shining through the tiny vase!

 Such a sweet and cheery sign of the new season...like little singing mouths praising the new day!

 Tiny willow buds still coming out...

 These are not the same as the big fat ones I got on the beach, but slender

little ones from the woods...

 Outside the rattlesnake plantain is making an appearance.

So named for it's mottled leaves. I believe it's in the orchid family but

doesn't produce much of a flower. It's a wee thing which has leaves only about

4" long at the most. It pokes through the mossy undergrowth of dappled forest...

 The small but mighty honey bees were VERY happy floating around in the sun yesterday...

 They're busy spring cleaning, removing the dead bees who didn't make it through the winter...

The kale which has survived all winter is about to flower which will

help the honeybees until more spring and summer flowers are out.

So don't cut down the kale just yet!

The fish in the pond have been resurfacing and playing amongst the new lily leaves...

And the garlic is coming up nicely too...a few small pruning of the leaves
will be added to dishes for some fresh spring flavour!

So there you have it...some small but encouraging signs alive and well!

Swarm again!

Yesterday I was working in the studio and when Tom came home he asked me

to come outside for a minute...

See the bright green bushes there?

 What?

Look a little closer!

 That brown clump in the tree?

It's about 30,000 bees!

 Once in a while one of the hives has a swarm and here it is...

 8 pounds of bees.

 Quite harmless if you move slow.

They're only interested in what the queen is doing and staying with her.

Don't ask me which one she is!

She's probably hidden in the middle.

 So we called Bob the beekeeper and he came and shook them into a box with a lid

so he can relocate them into a new hive.

I've written about this amazing phenomenon before.

It hasn't happened for 2 years so it's always exciting to see.

You can read more about the swarm that came to my garden one day and Bob put his hand right inside the swarm!



http://farmlass.blogspot.ca/2010/07/swarm-rama.html

Whats up?

This morning when I looked outside I was almost blindsided by something...

The sun!

It's been rainy and drizzly for about a week and a half but seems like FOREVER!

Not only is spring happening outside but here inside the house things are unfurling too...

 my lovely 'mother fern' is growing like a weed..

 ...her fiddle heads are little works of art...

 ...slowly unwinding the winter blues...

 As I stepped through the gates into the garden, I spotted this slithery fellow...

Some people are afraid of snakes but not me...these ones, garter snakes,

are totally harmless. In fact they're really good for your garden since they eat a lot of pests.

Just look at the smile on his face! He's as happy as me to see the sun and feel the warmth on his skin!

 A friend of mine gave me this wicker bench years ago and since

it's decayed too much for sitting in, I couldn't bare to throw it out

so I turned into a 'green bench'...

 Succulents and creeping woolly time growing amongst the moss...

 Earlier in the spring, my sisters oldest girl helped me plant

a memorial garden for her mom...we planted 2 roses; one for

my sister and one for my Aunt who died at Christmas time.

We also planted a bunch of Asiatic lilies (which my sister loved)

 She loved to feed crows and jays so I moved this rusty cut out into her garden...

 My aunt gave me this rose quartz heart after Tracy died so I put it at the base of the rose...

 In other spots, my New Zealand flax has a giant flower bud on it.

It's the first time since I planted it about 6 years ago that I've ever seen a bud

so I'm excited to see what it will look like...

 And the poppies!!!

 How gorgeous are these imitators of crepe paper and ruffly feather hats!!

 The beekeeper was up today checking on the hives and trying to prevent

4 swarm cells from taking off!

Him and his helper had to work really fast to create some new empty hives and

so far so good...they seemed to have settled down by the early afternoon...

 Besides the bees being active, I noticed quite a few butterflies around...

 they love the phlox!

Anyway that's what's happening in my world...how's your garden growing?